2. Materials and Methods
This study considers the importance of Halal food products in the world and the unique contribution of Malaysia in the procurement of these products. Consequently, the Malaysian Halal food manufacturers were selected as the target population of this study. The list of companies encompasses bakeries, fruits and vegetables, beverages, seafood, dairy, grains and oilseeds, beef and chicken products, and other food components. In this study, the companies involved ranged from small to large. This range was applied to obtain a holistic view of LSC implementation in the Halal food industry.
A questionnaire was developed based on the lean and SCM implementation concepts and practices. A set of LSC tools was designed based on the Srinivasan [41] as well as definition of the LSC implementation and lean concept (Table 2) of Demeter and Matyusz [1]. Value-added activities are considered as tools to examine customer requirements in the whole supply chain because understanding customer value is important to continue improvement in the waste reduction system [69,70]. Demand variation and order fluctuation are the common difficulties encountered in strategy management of each organization, which can be managed through supply chain collaboration. Managing demand volatility not only improves organizational performance, but also recovers the outcome of the whole supply chain. In this regard, demand collaboration and signal are considered LSC implementation tools to understand the clarity of demand across the supply chain.